


A Tale Of Two Slytherins

by Charlie9646



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU, Angst, Child Abuse Mentioned, Dark Magic, F/M, Flashback, Severus Snape Lives, Talking About the Past, change of heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:29:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22842487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charlie9646/pseuds/Charlie9646
Summary: Power corrupts always or does it?Andromeda walked away from the allure of the dark arts, away from the allure of money, wealth, a powerful family, and something she rarely speaks of the dark lord himself.Two very different Slytherins love each other, but to help Severus process his pain she tells him about her first love, the man who changed her life forever, Ted Tonks.
Relationships: Andromeda Black Tonks/Severus Snape, Past Ted Tonks/Andromeda Black Tonks
Comments: 6
Kudos: 10
Collections: Love Fest 2020





	A Tale Of Two Slytherins

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DarkAngelOfSorrowReturns](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkAngelOfSorrowReturns/gifts).



  
”I think most of who I was has died.”

Severus Snape was across from Andromeda Tonks. They sat in a small quiet cafe. The place was nearly empty, but he didn't know why he was here. He didn't understand why he wasn't rotting in the ground or prison. People still acted as if he was some leper, some poisoned creature that they feared— but the truth was? Severus had always been that way to people, no matter how he tried not to have it be the case. Trying might even have made him more of one, so Severus had long since given up trying.

Andromeda said nothing to him; she just started it him with her uncanny grey-blue eyes. In some ways, she reminded him of Bellatrix, but mostly she was herself. There was no one else exactly like Andy. The pureblood witch carried herself in a way that spoke to her heritage. But also with a softness that Narcissa, her sister, only reserved for her son. She took a sip of her tea and waited.

When Severus was ready— she would listen. He did not know what he did in all the years of his life to deserve this woman, to have the right to have her as a friend, but most of all, to love her and have those feelings returned. Ted had been dead for six years. Though they had only been together for six months, she had saved his life, and yet it seemed as if it was just a simple thing to her.As simple as helping someone with their bags.

Everyone he loved left and grew tired of him. Long ago, he thought he could be like everyone else, back when he was a child, back when Lily was his friend. But from the moment he stepped on the Hogwarts Express Severus was destined to become a part of Slytherin, no Prince had ever been sorted into another house. Fate had decided on some aspects of his life.

Maybe that's why he hung on Lucius Malfoy’s every single word. All of his mother’s stories had talked about people like Lucius and the power that they held. Maybe she hoped that someone like that could help her son have a better life, but the truth was the man had only set him on the path to his doom. It was as if Malfoy could smell that both his power, his insecurities, and his self-loathing.

But, he should not play the blame game; Severus should not put his crown of thorns on another’s head. He was the maker of his misery— he was the creator of his doom. Severus was the one who had chosen to take the mark, and Severus was the one who paid for such action. Thousand times over, he had paid for his crimes, and yet Dumbledore kept asking for more, like a monster growling in its cage, like a demon clawing against the walls.

The man was now dead, though, and everyone, after the war was over, knew the truth. Dumbledore’s curiosity, his ambitious nature, but mostly his shame had killed him. His desire to see his sister once again— to tell her how sorry he was for the actions that had led to her death.

Andromeda reached for him her cold fingers taking one of his hands in both of hers. ”Do you know if you do not speak what it is on your mind, Severus, your demons only grow larger, they only become stronger .”

”Andy, I sometimes feel as if I carry the weight of all that I have done, all that I helped do, and all that I allowed happening. I am a monster—I don't even know why you care for me—I am a sinking ship, and all I will do is drag you down with me.”

The woman sighed, ”Severus, you are not the only one who has ever lost anyone. I have lost a husband, a daughter, and a family. I tell you this not to make you feel invalidated, but to remind you that you are not alone. Let me tell you Severus about my past, about how I went from the sister of Narcissa and Bellatrix Black, daughter of Cygnus and Druella— to the wife of a muggleborn, and the mother of a half-blood. We started at a similar place, Severus Tobias Snape, but our paths went in different directions. I believe you don't know my full story— my true story. Lucius likely filled your head with lies.

Regulus undoubtedly spoke the rumors, my parents,gossiped about in hushed whispers. I know the reason you joined the death eaters— and it had little to with your hatred for your father, and had everything to do with wanting to best your mother.”

Severus sighed and listened— he had gotten to know Andromeda well over the months that had spent together. When she had decided something, all you could allow her to speak her mind and listen. She was rather Slytherin in that way.

***********************

The day Andromeda had met Ted Tonks was a day like any other though she had honestly known the man since they were just first years, but had never bothered to know him honestly. He was the goofy boy who made jokes about everything. Ted was the man who didn't bother hiding that he was a muggleborn— if anything, he was proud of that fact. But, it was also in a very Hufflepuff way.

Her husband was not ”one of the rest.” His soul was a light onto the world, as if he was, the sun peeking out of the clouds after a rainstorm.

When her sister Bellatrix saw him coming out of the woods, she shouted, ”Its just a stupid mudblood.” With a dark curse still on the tip of her tongue.

Ted shot back, ”I think I deserve a far better insult, Black, mudblood was just so yesterday, isn't it?”

Even Narcissa had laughed. Andromeda watched her eldest sister turned beet red and howled like some angry fiend.

”Hey, I don't mean to cause any issues. I just thought I would invite you to a show my friend is putting on at the bar down the road tonight. No harm, no foul?” Ted muttered his face turned down, staring at his brown leather boots.

He handed a paper that he clutched in his hand to Andy and said, ”I think you would enjoy it, but that's just me. All of you can come if you want to.”

Bellatrix huffed, Narcissa looked somewhat wary, and Andy tried desperately not to show her interest. Fearing that she might be found out, that she had been questioning what was at the very core of her family. The belief that they were better than those they saw below them, muggles, muggleborns, half-bloods, and blood traitors alike.

She decided that day she would sneak out tonight to see the show, what harm would it do?

The harm that it had done was not harm in the sense of evil— the damage had been in getting a taste of freedom. Andromeda had been able to shake off the shackles, the ones that bound her mind and soul. Dark magic had an addictive property to it— she could not deny such a thing. But, choice also had an addictive property to it as well. With choice came the ability to live the life of her choosing, the life that was more than who she married, more than the heirs she would have for someone, but most of all, it was being more than a name.

********************

She stared at Severus, ”Before you start, it was not about him taking me to the cinema, to bars, on dates, it was not about the fact that I fell in love with him. And I did fall in love with him. It was about this opportunity, this chance, this life I could have, with him or without him. Ted promised me, swore to me, that he would be there for me to help me figure out what I wanted to do and who I wanted to be. Unlike Lucius? There was no, but you must do this. The light gave me freedom, Severus it gave me a chance at a normal life. Ted just happened to be a part of it.”

”That’s great and all.” sighed Severus, ”but Andromeda, what in the world does that have to do with me?”

”Because of the fact Severus... I, too, was recruited to join the death eaters. I knew more dark curses in my first year than most seventh years. Do you know where that comment Sirius use to say about you came from? He wasn't pulling it from thin air. He was speaking about himself. All the Black children learned dark curses growing up; dark magic is at the very core of what it meant to be part of the Black family. My daughter, bless her soul, was the first of my family not to know both how to cast those spells, and the pain of them felt like. Teddy will be the second if I have anything to say on the matter.”

He tried to hide his shame, desperate not to allow let the other know his suffering but unable to keep quiet. ”My mother punished me with those curses; it was the only time she brought out her wand. She couldn't use it to protect me, from him, or even heal me after he hurt me, but bloody hell she could use it make things worse. That's all she ever did was make things worse!”

Andromeda tapped her pale fingers against the wooden table, ”You know she was only doing what she was raised to do, right? I don't think she understood the damage that she did. Any more than you did the moment you called Lily Potter, that name, you know that, don't you?”

”How can you go on about being better and yet defend her?” He snarled his face tight with an anger he could barely control, and his emotions were as tight as a guitar string ready to snap. ”How is that I am a monster, and she's just a woman who made mistakes?”

”As it stands, Eileen Prince Snape long ago departed this world, and I am not one for thinking ill of the dead.Wanting those still on this earth to be better is quite different than judging those who can no longer speak for themselves.

Severus Snape, your life is not set in stone. You can become a better person if you want to if you choose to. And if you're going to, I will be here for you. Power may have corrupted you— but it doesn't have to end you. It doesn't have to be the last line of your life. It does not have to be what they speak of when you're gone. You have come so far, but now you are finally free of the debts and the promises you made. It's time to turn the page and truly live. But, first the person you must forgive is yourself.”

Severus reached for her hand and clutched it in his own, and whispered, ”I want to try... Not for Lily, my mother, Dumbledore, or even you, but for myself.”

”And that is why I haven't given up on you, because I know you have it in you, Severus, just like I did.” Said Andromeda.

The Slytherins, the one who made the right choice and the one who made the wrong ones could make a go of whatever this was. They both understood loss and what it felt like to start over. Slytherins, if they were anything, we're not to be counted out. Even if things looked bleak– the house of snakes was the house of survivors.

”In the darkest times, hope is something you give yourself.” Uncle Iroh


End file.
